Female electrical terminals comprising a main body made from a conductor that has a space into which the corresponding tab terminal is inserted, and elastic contact members made of conductive material, are provided in a curved form inside the space, as described in Guide to Multiple Contact Band Technology (Hugin Industries, Inc.; published Nov. 30, 1990), for example, have been known in the past.
The elastic contact members provided in the female electrical terminal described in the known guide have the following mounting structure. FIG. 19 is a longitudinal section of the guide that shows the mounting structure of the elastic contact members in a conventional female electrical terminal. As shown in FIG. 19, the elastic contact members 2 in sheet form are respectively placed in a pair of dovetail grooves 8 in the top and bottom of the space 6 in the main body 4 so that they extend almost parallel to the insertion direction of the tab terminal 10 while curving to the inside of space 6 so that they can make contact with the corresponding tab terminal 10 inserted in the space 6. Sometimes a multiplicity of slots that extend almost parallel with the insertion direction of the tab terminal, and are aligned in a direction orthogonal to that of the insertion direction (i.e., the direction perpendicular to the page), are formed in the elastic contact members 2 so that they can make uniform contact with the corresponding tab terminal 10.
Considering the functions of the elastic contact members 2 described above, they must be placed so that they reliably contact the corresponding tab terminal 10. However, relative to the ease of inserting and removing the corresponding tab terminal 10, it is desirable that the tab terminal 10 can be easily inserted or removed with a rather small force.
The distance d between the upper and lower elastic contact members 2 in FIG. 19 must be somewhat less than the height h of the tab terminal 10, allowing also for structural error of the corresponding tab terminal 10, in order that those elastic contact members can make reliable contact with the corresponding tab terminal 10. However, if the elastic contact members 2 are placed in dovetail grooves 8 and the positions of both ends are fixed as described above, a considerable force is required to deform the elastic contact members 2 upward and downward. Therefore, with the manner of mounting the elastic contact members 2 described in the above publication, a fairly large force is inevitably necessary when inserting or removing the corresponding tab terminal 10 when the elastic contact members 2 have been placed in the position where reliable contact with the corresponding tab terminal 10 is achieved.
Also, machining was necessary to form such dovetail grooves 8 as shown in FIG. 19, and therefore forming such dovetail grooves was fairly expensive.
The problem that the instant invention solves is: providing a female electrical terminal whereby the corresponding tab terminal can be easily inserted and removed with a small force; reliable contact is effected between the elastic contact members and the corresponding tab terminal; and the female terminal is also easily manufactured so costs can be reduced by devising a mounting structure for the elastic contact members.